The University of Maryland Eastern Shore struggled from the field on Monday (Jan. 15) night at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center shooting 29 percent from the field, 14 percent from 3 and committing 20 turnovers in a 54-51 loss to South Carolina State (6-10, 1-3 MEAC).

“We had a lot of looks at the end of the game,” Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. “I thought we had a lot of opportunities to take advantage of the basketball game, but it started with the very first possession and the missed layup that we started with. Outside of a couple of other playes we just didn’t play well enough to beat anybody.

The Hawks (4-13, 1-4 MEAC) dug themselves a 17-9 hole in the first quarter. They came back to take the lead with 7:36 to go in the third quarter and then traded leads with South Carolina State until the Bulldogs took a 53-51 lead on a pair of free throws by Kemoni Jenkins with 53 seconds left and didn’t give it up.

“If you are scoring 51 points in a game at the Division I level, I don’t know who you can beat,” Batcheler said.

The Hawks did manage to make 65 percent from the line 17-of-26) which was their third best shooting day from the line this season. But 16-of-55 from the field sank them as they shot 23 percent in the first and 25 percent in the third quarter.

“I don’t know what else we can do,” Batchelor said. “I thought we got the stuff to get what we wanted, but we didn’t capitalize. It was just disappointing that we came out and shot the ball so poorly. I thought we competed. I thought they did a good job getting to the glass.

“They had 19 offensive rebounds and we had 20 turnovers. But they had 18 turnovers and gave us 18 rebounds, so at the end of the day it was anybody’s game. It was just a poorly played game to be honest. No disrespect to South Carolina State, who comes away with a victory. I’d rather be them than me right now.”

Freshman forward Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) led the Hawks with 15 points and nine rebounds. Martha Thompson (Bedford Heights, Ohio) chipped in 10 points, three rebounds an assist and a pair of steals in 25 minutes.

Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) had eight points, six rebounds and assists and a pair of steals.

The Shore got into early foul trouble and by the end of the contest Gill-Miles, Thompson, Jordyn Smith (Durham, North Carolina) all fouled out.

Chioma Nkpuechina (Anambria, Nigeria) left the game in the third quarter after going down hard hustling back to stop a breakaway layup. She committed the foul and was tangled up with the Bulldogs player and a cheerleader, hitting the back of her head on the floor in the process.

She was taken to the hospital to be checked out with some dizziness, but walked to the ambulance with assistance.

Eastern Shore will be off until Saturday, Jan. 20 when they host North Carolina A&T State (8-7, 3-0 MEAC).

“We have to play better than this,” Batchelor said. “We played well enough to win one game on this trip and didn’t play well enough to win two. It’s like the kid that can make one shot but not back-to-back shots. You can’t win basketball games like that. You have to get back and play better than we did tonight.